In Haringey, the council is changing the way it charges for car parking. Dialogue between the council and the scheme’s opponents is progressing via a medium that is unconventional but actually rather apt: the parking meters themselves.

Is this all the work of one person? It looks like the same sort of pen, and the handwriting is similar. The wording in that second matches that of the original yellow stickers. Perhaps this is just a one-man crusade. A lone wolf. Or perhaps these interventions are radicalising a whole new generation of militants. Only time will tell.

Last year I wrote a piece about the strategies commuters use to get seats on trains. I ended up appearing on a few radio programmes that portrayed me as an expert on the social rules of public transport, or at least someone who was unreasonably obsessed with that topic.

So I’m heartened to hear about Esther Kim of Yale University, who has “chalked up thousands of miles of bus travel to examine the unspoken rules and behaviors of commuters” while working on a paper called Nonsocial Transient Behavior: Social Disengagement on the Greyhound Bus.

“I became what’s known as an experienced traveler and I jotted down many of the different methods people use to avoid sitting next to someone else,” said Kim. “We engage in all sorts of behavior to avoid others, pretending to be busy, checking phones, rummaging through bags, looking past people or falling asleep. Sometimes we even don a ‘don’t bother me face’ or what’s known as the ‘hate stare’.”

And I thought I was brave to spend 90 minutes a day on an Overground train from Highbury to Kensington. Esther’s exhaustive research has truly put me in the shade.

Yesterday was one of the semi-regular days of chaos on London’s travel system. A strike by the RMT and the TSSA unions left many stations closed and almost all lines operating a skeleton service. The blank October sky glowered down on us as, in our millions, we battled our way across a suddenly inhospitable city.

On my packed Overground train there was a moment of levity when, in a tunnel between two stations, the driver fired up the intercom to make an announcement.

“As you know there is industrial action on the underground today so we’re a lot busier than usual. To make it easier on everyone, can you please let passengers get off the train before boarding.”

And this is when we were nowhere near a station, in the middle of a tunnel. For a beat there was silence, then a wave of gentle laughter passed through the carriage.

The humourous mood soon lifted. We arrived at Willesden Junction and a near-riot ensued when nearly a thousand people tried to force their way on to the train. I guess they didn’t hear the announcement.

About me

I'm a digital strategist and user experience designer who overanalyses mundane topics and draws diagrams about them. You'll find some of these on this blog as well as lots of other stuff. Find out more about me or, if you can't be bothered to read all that text, follow me on Twitter.